Is Crowdfunding Leveling The Playing Field For Entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurs are not always well served by traditional gatekeepers for financing. The good news is that VCs are no longer the only ones holding the key to investment money.

December 28, 2015

With access to a computer, creative strategy and hard work, Crowdfunding is proving to be a viable way for founders to access capital and secure early stage investment. Now more entrepreneurs who suffer from limited access to capital and VC networks, can find funding more efficiently and successfully.

This is especially true for entrepreneurs who feel they face discrimination based on who they are or where they come from. A 2014 study from NYU and Wharton reported that women-only teams had a 40% better chance of meeting fundraising goals using crowdfunding.

In a Fast Company article, Ryan Caldbeck, CEO of crowdfunding platform CircleUp, tells writer Lydia Dishman that he doesn’t believe the success of crowdfunding to be gender-specific. He believes that women “are a clearly identifiable group that is benefiting from this transformation, but there are many others, including entrepreneurs in rural areas.”

In the article Dishman speaks to how crowdfunding acts as a buffer to unconscious bias and benefits underserved entrepreneurs. Aside from Caldbeck, Dishman also talks to entrepreneur Bonnie Marcus, author of The Politics of Promotion, and serial entrepreneur Courtney Nichols Gould, cofounder of SmartyPants vitamins, about what it takes outside of a capital campaign to secure growth for your company.

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